08/04/2020 - 11:56
- Clarín.com
- sports
Paulo Dybala carries a strange "sentence" if it is about football. He broke it in Serie A won by Juventus, to the point that this Tuesday he was chosen as the best player of the season . The MVP. But he plays alongside Cristiano Ronaldo in his team and Lionel Messi in the National Team. Then she dresses roughly wide with similar cracks . However, it moves. Go if it moves ...
"What I'm going to say is going to seem strange," Paulo Dybala says. It is a little difficult to play with him , because we do it in the same position. I try to always respect their space on the court and feel as comfortable as possible, but we play in the same position. So surely it is I who have to adapt more to him, try to help him where I can and make him feel comfortable on the court. ”
It was three years ago, on September 11, 2017. Dybala was preparing to play with Juventus on the first date of Group 4 of the Champions League. He visited the Camp Nou, Messi´s Barcelona. And the DeporTV journalist's question, from the "Mundo Leo" program, generated the best-known phrase of the Cordovan football career . That same phrase that was out of context was adapting to countless journalistic debates around the magnetic figure of Messi in the Selection and constant casting to get him an ideal partner.
On September 12, 2017, a day after that Dybala press conference, Messi scored a double for Barcelona's 3-0. And three days later Jorge Sampaoli delivered the list of summoned to face Peru and Ecuador by Qualifiers. The forwards were Messi, Dybala, Icardi and Agüero.
"I think obviously I could have said it differently," Dybala admitted this year about that phrase that included Messi. "There was bad intention from people who wanted to see it differently and not as a football analysis. I am not going to criticize another colleague at a press conference. I discussed it with Leo , we are similar tactically, we had agreed that it was normal to meet on the court. I have to adapt to it. We worked with Scaloni and we did it in the Copa América. I tried to speak and look at him so as not to crash, "he argued.
He played just 22 minutes in Russia 2018. “We were excited that Dybala could be a top player. Either we did not know how to find him a place or he did not adapt, ”Sampaoli said in the World Cup preview. The numbers endorsed it: the Cordovan who in Juventus had inherited the "10" shirt from Del Piero, Baggio and Platini, accumulated 12 games with the light blue and white, eight starting. No goal, no assist.
On his return from the World Cup, his first World Cup, which left him much more disappointed than happy, he found a new teammate at Juventus. "My friends used to say to me: 'Boludo, you have the best in the national team and now they bring you the other best'”. Cristiano Ronaldo hit the market.
"I replied that they are wrong," Dybala continues in an interview with El País. It is an advantage for me , I can study them every day. Who does not want to throw a wall with the best? We are talking about two phenomena. "
Dybala celebrates with Messi: each scored one goal in the third-place triumph against Chile for the 2019 Copa América Brasil. (AP Photo / Victor R. Caivano)
Accustomed to relegating himself to the role of second guitar in the National Team, he had to function as Juventus' coarse width . And there he must also have lived with prejudices, football fans and others.
Dybala shared 11 games (played 439 minutes) with Messi in the National Team and scored only one goal: in the triumph against Chile for third place in the 2019 Copa América. In those same matches, Leo played 937 minutes and scored two goals.
"On a personal level, he surprised me for good. I did not know him," he says of CR7 and all his pomp. "We were in for a big surprise, always ready to listen, chat ... You see him as an enlarged guy," he explained.
What's more, when they gained confidence, the Cordovan confessed to the Portuguese that initial objection: “I told him: 'I am sincere, we in Argentina a little hate you, for your figure, for your way of being, for walking .. you surprised me. ' And he said to me, 'I know that's the way it is, I'm used to it.' "
It is worth noting an injustice. No one asks Nelson Semedo, who plays for the Portugal National Team with Cristiano and for Barcelona with Messi, about his coexistence with the two cracks or about his comfort in associating with them.
Dybala, due to its soccer characteristics and its position on the court, knows that it carries this backpack.
What's more, on June 10, in the run-up to the clash against Milan for the semifinals of the Italy Cup, it was Juventus' own coach. Maurizio Sarri, the one who rekindled the controversy by stating that " Dybala is a phenomenal player, he is a crack , although tactically it is difficult to coexist with Cristiano Ronaldo ."
The problem worsened after Juve lost the Cup final against Napoli. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport , Sarri confided to those close to him that "he would have preferred Cristiano to play as center-forward, but the boys chose Dybala for that position."
DT's authority is a matter of analysis in Italy. "Ronaldo decides, I do not decide - they assure that Sarri says behind the doors -. He made more than 700 goals starting from the left towards the center. It is normal that he prefers that location. I spoke with the three forwards and they opted for Dybala in a position more focused. "
The discussion is where he places the Cordovan in relation to the undisputed ownership of the Portuguese. Coupling the pieces is all about. Since coming to Juventus in 2015 and after a phenomenal campaign at Palermo, where he was the width of swords, Dybala won 9 titles and knew how to build an effective attack society with Gonzalo Higuaín. I don't know
Now Pipita runs from behind: in Serie A he started in only 18 games of the season and scored 7 goals. The line of three attackers is made up of Douglas Costa or Federico Bernardeschi on the right, Cristiano on the other side and Dybala as center-forward, entering and leaving the area. That would be the formation that best suits CR7, who is looking for ground to launch at speed on the wing and also free space in the heart of the area to cut in. For that, it is not the same if Dybala, accustomed to coming from behind, is a scorer of the characteristics of Higuaín.
With Cristiano Ronaldo, Dybala shared 66 games (in 47 they were both starters): the Cordovan scored 16 goals and the Portuguese 44. In addition, on two occasions the Argentine entered by CR7.
The topic that occupied so much space in Argentine soccer debates moves to Italy. It is clear: both Messi with the light blue and white and Cristiano with the white and black are not only immovable pieces but they will enjoy the physical space that best suits them on the playing field. The complementary ones are the ones that must be adapted.
And there is Dybala. "I have a good vibe with Cristiano. We talk a lot, sometimes we talk for a long time about things that have nothing to do with soccer. And with Leo , too. The relationship has grown a lot. We share afternoons of mate and we have a group in which we played trick in the room, "clarified the Cordovan before the recent recurring question.
The Cordovan had a great return after suffering coronavirus: he scored four goals in four games. (Photo by Marco Bertorello / AFP)
On the return to football after the stoppage due to a coronavirus that Dybala suffered in his own flesh, he scored four goals in his first four games. It was the width of swords, it was better than Ronaldo. He scored 2-0 against Bologna, opened the account 4-0 against Lecce, 3-1 against Genoa and 4-0 in the classic against Torino. His performance served the team to escape the Serie A lead.
And when Paulo lowered the level, it also translated into reduced results: he did not play by suspension in the 4-2 defeat against Milan, he started in an undeserved 2-2 draw against Atalanta, substitute in the dizzying 3-3 against Sassuolo and returned to the starting eleven in the 2-1 win against Lazio, with two penalties by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Against Udinese, with the chance of winning and reaching the ninth Scudetto in a row, without Giorgio Chiellini or Gianluigi Buffon in the team, but with CR7 from the start, the captain's armband remained in Dybala's hands. The team lost 2-1 and postponed the celebration.
"The life of a player is like a roller coaster," he says. "One day you are the best and the next day you are useless. Trying to find a point of balance is not easy."
And without anyone asking him, he entered the comparison alone: "It happens to everyone, even to champions like Messi or Ronaldo: after everything they have done throughout the respective races, they continue to be criticized" .
FK
